Developmental Phonologies Archive

The Developmental Phonologies Archive consists of the longitudinal records from each of 280 children in production of probe words that sampled target English singletons, onset and coda clusters.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031KK, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)See Learnability Project Working Paper: Phonological Protocols in the BASICS collection of the Gierut / Learnability Project; http://dx.doi.org/10.5967/K87P8W9VZIP file approximately 158MB; CONTENTS: PhonArchive_Individual Ss (folder with individual .xlsx files); PhonArchive_Reference Files; README.pdf with instructions for use and keys to coding; SOFTWARE: Excel: Mac 2011; Adobe Acrobat XI Pro PDF/A; NOTE: It is imperative to retain Lucida Grande font to preserve the integrity of phonetic transcriptions

Demographics Archive

The Demographics Archive provides diagnostic and case information for 280 children with phonological disorders.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031KK, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)See Learnability Projects Working Paper: Participant Eligibility and Demographics in the BASICS collection of the Gierut / Learnability Project; http://dx.doi.org/10.5967/K8H41PB4ZIP file approximately 1MB; CONTENTS: DemogArchive_Across Ss.xlsx; DemogArchive_Reference File.pdf; README.pdf with instructions for use and keys to coding; SOFTWARE: Excel: Mac 2011; Adobe Acrobat XI Pro PDF/A; NOTE: It is imperative to retain Lucida Grande font to preserve the integrity of phonetic transcriptions

Learnability Project Research Team

Learnability Project Research TeamNational Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031KK, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Experimental Archive

The Experimental Archive summarizes the conditions of clinical treatment and corresponding performance of 219 children who were enrolled in experimental training studies of production.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031KK, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)See Learnability Project Working Paper: Experimental Designs and Protocols in the BASICS collection of the Gierut / Learnability Project; http://dx.doi.org/10.5967/K8CC0XMDZIP file approximately 95MB; CONTENTS: ExpArchive_Across Ss.xlsx; ExpArchive_Individual Ss; ExpArchive_Reference Files; README.pdf with instructions and key to coding; Software: Excel: Mac 2011; Adobe Acrobat XI Pro PDF/A; NOTE: It is imperative to retain Lucida Grande font to preserve the integrity of phonetic transcriptions

Phonological complexity and language learnability

Purpose: To extend formal models of language learnability to applications in clinical treatment of children with functional phonological delays. Method: The focus of the narrative review is on phonological complexity. This follows from learnability theory, whereby complexity in the linguistic input to children has been shown to trigger language learning. Drawing from the literature, phonological complexity is defined from epistemic, ontological, and functional perspectives, with specific emphasis on the application of language universals in the selection of target sounds for treatment. Results: The cascading effects of phonological complexity on children's generalization learning are illustrated, and frequently asked questions about complexity in treatment are addressed. Conclusion: The role of complexity in cognitive development is introduced to demonstrate the apparent robustness of effects.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Comparability of lexical corpora: Word frequency in phonological generalization

Statistical regularities in language have been examined for new insight to the language acquisition process. This line of study has aided theory advancement, but it also has raised methodological concerns about the applicability of corpora data to child populations. One issue is whether it is appropriate to extend the regularities observed in the speech of adults to developing linguistic systems. The purpose of this paper is to establish the comparability of lexical corpora in accounting for behavioural effects of word frequency on children's phonological generalization. Four word frequency corpora were evaluated in comparison of child/adult and written/spoken sources. These were applied post-hoc to generalization data previously reported for two preschool children. Results showed that the interpretation of phonological generalization was the same within and across children, regardless of the corpus being used. Phonological gains were more evident in low than high frequency words. The findings have implications for the design of probabilistic studies of language acquisition and clinical treatment programmes.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics on June 2007, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02699200701299891

The predictive power of optimality theory for phonological treatment

The phonology and clinically induced learning patterns of a female child with a phonological delay (age 4;11) were examined from the analytical perspective of Optimality Theory. The analysis revealed that a Consonant Harmony error pattern affected alveolar stops from two different sources from underlying lexical representations and from representations derived by an interacting error pattern of Deaffrication. The implications of that analysis for the selection of treatment targets were explored in a treatment study. It was found that treatment aimed at the derived source of Consonant Harmony resulted in the suppression of both Consonant Harmony and Deaffrication. The explanation for these results was attributed to a fixed ranking among certain constraints.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

How to meet the neighbors: Modality effects on phonological generalization

Long-term auditory priming of words from dense neighborhoods has been posited as a learning mechanism that affects change in the phonological structure of children’s lexical representations. An apparent confound associated with the modality of priming responsible for structural change has been introduced in the literature, which challenges this proposal. Thus, our purpose was to evaluate prime modality in treatment of children with phonological delay. Nine children were assigned to auditory-visual, auditory or visual priming of words from dense neighborhoods prior to treatment of production as the independent variable. The dependent variable was phonological generalization. Results showed that auditory priming (with or without visual input) promoted greater generalization on an order of magnitude of 3:1. Findings support the theoretical significance of auditory priming for phonological learning and demonstrate the applied utility of priming in clinical treatment.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut

Phonological learning and lexicality of treated stimuli

The purpose was to evaluate the lexicality of treated stimuli relative to phonological learning by preschool children with functional phonological disorders. Four children were paired in a single-subject alternating treatments design that was overlaid on a multiple baseline across subjects design. Within each pair, one child was taught one sound in real words and a second sound in non-words; for the other child of the pair, lexicality was reversed and counterbalanced. The dependent variable was production accuracy of the treated sounds as measured during the session-by-session course of instruction. Results indicated that production accuracy of the treated sound was as good as or better using non-word as opposed to real word stimuli. The clinical implications are considered, along with potential accounts of the patterns of learning.National Institutes of Health DC00433, RR7031K, DC00076, DC001694 (PI: Gierut)This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics on February 2010, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.3109/02699200903440975